Page 23 of Single Mom's Firefighter SEALs
Buck and I have seen Calder hit rough patches before, but it’s been a while.
I fill a mug directly from the brewer’s stream and hand it to Calder. “Here. It’ll give you the strength to keep holding up the furniture.”
He accepts it without comment and keeps leaning, until I take the box of cold pizza out of the fridge and slide it onto the table.
When they’re both a few bites into their first slices, Buck asks Calder, “What set it off?”
Calder’s jaw goes still for a full second before he continues chewing, and Buck waits him out.
“Dispatch,” Calder says after he swallows. “Possible victims.”
Buck nods as he chews his next bite.
After several more seconds of silence, Calder says, “It shouldn’t still hit like that.”
Buck’s expression doesn’t change. “But it does.”
I finally join them at the table with my cup of coffee. “You want honesty?” I ask, looking at Calder.
“No, but you’re going to give it to me anyway.”
Buck slides another piece of pizza out of the box. “You’ve been on edge for days.”
Calder’s jaw tightens. “I’m functioning.”
“He didn’t say you weren’t,” I tell Calder.
He looks at me, and I hold his gaze without pushing. He knows I’m not challenging him, but he also knows I’m not going to let him hide behind a technicality.
“You’re sleeping like shit,” Buck says. “You recheck things that don’t need rechecking.”
“You go still when Elena’s name comes up,” I add. “Which would be funny if it weren’t a problem.”
He gives me a flat look. “You think that’sfunny?”
“I do, but not the rest of it.”
We eat in relative silence while the coffee drips and the heat kicks on through the vent.
When Calder finishes his second piece, he wipes his mouth, then tosses the crumpled napkin onto the table. “I had it handled.”
Buck lifts an eyebrow. “Did you?”
Calder slides his chair back and leans into it. “Not fast enough.”
I take a swallow of coffee, then set my mug down. “Then that’s the problem. Not whether you’re broken or whether we need to start treating you like a glass object. The problem is response time.” When he looks at me, I shrug one shoulder. “So we adjust.”
Buck nods toward the bay. “You weren’t alone out there, and you’re not going to be. That’s not how this works.”
For another long while, nobody talks, and Calder’s coffee sits untouched. “When dispatch saidpossible victims,I heard something else.” His eyes go to the far wall of the kitchen. “I heard the call from that night.”
Buck and I stay quiet.
“The one after the vehicle lit up.”
I freeze with my mug halfway to my mouth, then force myself to take a drink.
“Not the whole thing,” Calder says. “Just pieces. Enough.”
